Entrusting Faithful Men

Jesus came as the good shepherd to bring us into abundant life, to return us to the experience of Adam and Eve in the Garden before the fall. How is this accomplished?

1. First, He sacrificed His life for the sheep. (John 10:11) “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (ESV) Jesus is very clear on His purpose: He is to die as the paschal lamb for sinful men so as to satisfy the justice of God and reunite men and women to Him. It would be sacrificial for He need not die. He knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). It would be voluntary and on His terms (John 10:18, Galatians 1:4). Its timing would be perfect, happening on the very day that lambs would be slaughtered on the altar of the Temple as part of the Passover celebration, a celebration of God’s love, mercy and grace when the angel of death passed over His chosen. How fitting that God display his ultimate love and grace and mercy on that day! It would be substitutionary. We deserved to die, but instead continue reading…

Jesus’ audience in John 10 would have been very familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures (the Talmud). Education of Jewish children began at age five or six, with girls’ education usually concluding at age twelve, while the boys continued their studies, becoming a religious adult at age thirteen, a tradition continuing today with the bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah celebrations. The best students continued to age fifteen, studying the Talmud half the day while apprenticing in a trade the other half. The best of the best would then be invited by a rabbi to be discipled, with a view to becoming just like the rabbi. The most successful would then become rabbis themselves generally around age thirty.

Jesus’ reference to the “good shepherd” would have brought several passages to mind for his hearers, the most obvious being continue reading…

As we have already seen in the previous posts on the “Door of the Sheep”, Jesus equated the religious leaders of Israel as bad shepherds, who did not truly care for the sheep. He equates them, in fact, with robbers and thieves. “All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.” (John 10:8, ESV).

So who were these religious leaders? We have three groups that were prominently discussed in the New Testament – the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes. The Pharisees were the Jewish rabbinical sect viewed as the ruling religious party of Palestine in Jesus’ day. The Pharisees came onto the scene after the Maccabean revolt against Seleucid and Greek rule in 167 BC. The Zealots continued the battle against the Greek influences, oftentimes using violence. The Pharisees appear to have formed as an alternative to the Zealots around 100 BC, recognizing that the opposition of the Greeks (and the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persian before them) as God’s punishment for failing to keep the Law. continue reading…

The Pharisees corner Jesus on His thoughts about their spiritual condition. “Do you think we’re blind?” Jesus turns the table on them in His response. “No you are not blind. You hang onto your sight.” (John 9:40-41) It was their pride and the self-righteousness that kept them from seeing Jesus as the Messiah. In sin, the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened (Genesis 3:7) and innocence was lost. The Pharisees were in the same state. It was all about what they themselves brought to the table. I heard a great quote last night from Adrian Rogers, “Holiness is not the way to Christ, but Christ is the way to holiness.” Thus Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who are spiritually bankrupt, for the kingdom of heaven is in their reach.” (Matthew 5:3). It’s when we realize that we are spiritually blind and bring nothing to the table that we can accept God’s gracious gift and find true life in Christ.

Jesus continues the discourse by presenting the Pharisees as bad shepherds of God’s people. He begins “Truly, truly.” (John 10:1) In the Greek, the word is “amen”. He begins, “Amen, amen.” We usually end our prayers with this word, not begin our sermons with it. When we say “Amen” we acknowledge our agreement, “That’s right, that’s truth.” Jesus alone uses this word to begin a sentence in the New Testament. I like the rendition, “I Who am Truth, tell you this truth . . .”

As He frequently does, Jesus uses an object lesson to illustrate truth. The object this time is a sheepfold. Perhaps there was one within viewing distance, but all would be familiar with a sheepfold in that culture and day. We are not so accustomed. The object one might use here in Arizona is a corral. Sheepfolds were enclosures where the sheep would spend the night in relative safety. Here’s some images . . . continue reading…